Art Therapy Without Borders - So Far 10 Postcards...

So far I have only gotten a total of 10 postcards, from art therapists around the world who participated in the Art Therapy without Borders Project.  I have already posted 5 of them, and at this point I would be really surprised to get any more of them.  So I decided to post the newest ones for all to see and let it go at that for now. 

 This first one is from Renee Bond an art therapy student at NDNU in San Francisco

                             The above postcard  is from Christy Wolfram living in Northern Kentucky

 Natalie Coriell an art therapist from a small southern Illinois town sent the one shown above.  Natalie is the only one with links to an online shop and a blog.  nostalgicscraps on etsy ,  and urbannostalgicscraps blog...unfortunately her blog link doesn't work.  Oh well.
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 Be My MIrror comes from Christine Hennig in Omaha Nebraska

 And lastly, the one above is from Paul Lee and art therapist in Singapore.

I wonder if I will receive any more of these.  What do you think.  I obsessively sent out about 36 of them at the very begining of the project.  It was fun to participate, but whether or not I will do this type of thing again, I am not sure.  Should I?

The Thrill is Gone- Still making postcards..

As I continue to make postcards for the Art Therapy without Borders, post card swap,  I have to say, tthat the thrill is gone.  Gone is the excitement of creating, being replaced with a sense of the obsessive need to complete the project.  

I know, ..... I know that I have 6 months to complete the postcards... but I feel the weight of the commitment to it haunting me, and keeping me from doing other things.

So, I have been creating postcards in bits and pieces over the past week, and now I only have 3 more to make and I am done.  

The other day I mailed off the last of the cards to go to the US and  as soon as I finish making the last three I will mail off all the international cards and be on to something new.  I am often like that when some creative process turns into a creative commitments, something shifts for me and....somewhere along the line, the excitement of the initial creative response leads to the feeling of the grass is always greener syndrome...only in this case the greener longing for another art engagement of some sort.  Maybe it is the colder weather, but encaustic is calling me.

So these are the last few cards that I haven't shared here yet.  Once again, using rice papers and collage bits and pieces of ephemera, to create a visual ground and then adding words.   The words for the  Raw Soul Art Card came from a little box of words and letters that I keep adding to.  I just pulled words from it and tried to find some wisdom from the random words.

I love this Pablo Picasso quote, which I added to several postcards...."Art washes form the soul, the dust of everyday life."

Art Heals...

                                                                            Inspire....

So  artists and art therapists, and all creative beings, are explorers of spirit.

May you all find the way to explore spirit through creativity in your own unique ways.

Thanks for visiting, and sharing in my art process.  

Post Card Exchange- Art Therapy Without Borders

Well, I have been busy making mail art postcards, for the Art Therapy Without Borders Post Card Exchange.  I will be making and mailing over 25 Art postcards to be sent to a list of art therapists all over the world

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This art exchange includes over 350 art therapists and art therapy students participating from Singapore, India, France, Scotland, Slovac Republic, Canada, Ireland, Australia, the UK, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, Taiwan, Belgium, New Zealand, Malaysia, Hungary, Honduras, Chile, the United States, South Africa, Germany, Peru, Spain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, Indonesia, Jamaica, Portugal, and Hong Kong.


"The goal of this collaborative art project is to allow community members from the Art Therapy Alliance, International Art Therapy Organization, and Art Therapy Without Borders to receive postcard art from art therapists and art therapy students living all over the world." ~ ATWB

Here is the entry way to my studio and some of the supplies that I have been using for my mail art - mixed media post cards....

So   I  have finished 11 of them and mailed them out yesterday.   I am posting the mixed media cards I sent out as well as my process here, for your viewing        Here are the 11 postcards that I sent out yesterday , to art therapists in the USA.   I plan on doing the international ones all in a group, so I only have to go once to the post office for the correct postage.

My process....  I started with a large sheet of watercolor paper, I  measured the size for each postcard on the back....then I created washes and played with it without any specific focus.  

 I then cut out each postcard (and I found out that the size given on the directions was a little to small)
I loved the idea  cutting out each section and letting only a part of the whole be the postcard.  Here is one of the watercolor postcard sections.  I love the combination of orange and blue...so vibrant.

 Here is the card that this section eventually became.   I took a folder of laser prints of some of my mandalas, that weren't extremely high quality prints and cut parts and pieces of my original art out.

                                         Then I glued pieces onto my watercolors randomly...

              I took irrdescent and metallic watercolor paints and doodled on each of  the watercolors.....

                        All of this was done in stages, watercoloring, doodling, collaging and then

                                        stamping....all around, once again randomly.
                                     my intention was to have fun, without judgement or plan.

                    The last step in the process was adding words with rubber stamp alphabets.

 I really like this quote by Norman Vincent Peale.

"Imagination is the true magic carpet" 

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Well for some reason, I am not being successful in uploading the last several images...so I will leave it be for now.  At least this gives an idea of my process and the fun I have been having.

My next series will be done a bit differently.  I am looking forward to getting started soon and will share not only what I do, but what I receive here.   Until the next time.